California Environmental Quality Act: affordable housing: judicial review: bonds.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA. Existing law, in a civil action, including an action brought pursuant to CEQA, brought by a plaintiff challenging a housing project that is a development project meeting or exceeding the requirements for low- or moderate-income housing and in bringing the action or seeking relief has the effect of preventing or delaying the project, authorizes the defendant to apply to the court by noticed motion, on specified grounds, for an order requiring the plaintiff to furnish an undertaking as security for costs and damages that may be incurred by the defendant. This bill would authorize the court, upon motion or on its own motion, to require a person seeking judicial review of the decision of a lead agency made pursuant to CEQA to carry out or approve an affordable housing project to post a bond to cover the costs and damages to the affordable housing project incurred by the respondent or real party in interest.